George Washington, the first president of the United States, chief commander of the Continental Army and the president of the Constitutional Convention, is respected as father of the United States. In 1789, he was elected as the first president of United States. Four years later, he succeeded in re-election. Nevertheless, after two terms of presidency, he voluntarily gave up power and recessed to Mount Vernon. Historians have regarded him and Abraham Lincoln as most greatest presidents in the American history. In this paper, the author is going to unearth the biography of George Washington by using multiple types of academic sources, with the analysis of social, economic and political context.

Early life and marriage

It is recorded that George Washington was born on February 22, 1732 in a big slaveholder family in Virginia, about 40 miles south of Mount Vernon. His ancestor migrated to this country in the 17th century from England. His great-grandfather, his father accumulated land and slaves after moving to this new land. Therefore, George’s family was belonging to moderately affluent level in the Virginia, yet not the leading planter families. Since childhood, he received decent education, and he is creative, diligent, humble in personality. It is said that at age 17, George Washington achieved a position of professional county surveyor for the newly established frontier, during which he conducted surveys in Virginia and has cultivated profound interest in the West. According to Chernow (2010, p.53), by 1752, he had completed close to 200 surveys on numerous properties. After that, he continued to surveying at times throughout his life.

When retrospecting the social context, one can find out that in the early 18th century, when George Washington was born, numerous slaves were exported to American continent. Eric Foner has stated in the book Give me Liberty that businessmen from New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island took actively part in the slave trade, transporting slaves from Africa to Caribbean Sea and southern colonies…in 1720, more than half of the ships were occupied with the commercials relating with Caribbean. In a word, the Atlantic trade mainly consisted by slave, the crops produced by slaves and the commercial products transporting to slave society. With the steady establishment of slavery in the new Continent, John Woodman has put forwarded in 1762 that “the association of black color and slavery, the connection of white color and liberty” have deeply rooted in the northern colony society.

George Washington was known as “Founding father of the United States”—-a representative of independence, democracy and liberty. Nevertheless, he was also a slave owner. He inherited 10 slaves from his father, and he himself bought slaves from market as well. Before the outbreak of independent war, he has nearly 150 slaves as his personal property. However, he was also the only remarkable founding father that decided to liberate his slaves following his death in his will. (Chernow, 2010)

When Washington was 22, he joined the Virginia Militia and served alongside the English for 3 years in the French and Indian War. After the war, he returned home and married Martha, a charming young widow, along with two small children, “Jacky” and “Patsy”. Their wedding ceremony was recorded as very grand and their marriage were relatively stable. However, a pitiful detail is that while Washington was fond of children, he did not have his own kid throughout the life. Some scholars have analyzed it from medical perspective and concluded that he may suffer from infertility. “It seems probably that his infertility was the caused by one of the history’s greatest killers—-tuberculosis.” (John K. Amory, 2003, p498)Therefore, despite his great success in military and political cause, he may feel deeply regretful about his incapability to have an heir.

Political contribution

As the founding man of United States, George Washington is widely known to every household largely due to his contribution in the independence war and the establishment of the new nation.

The military leader in Independence War

By the 1770s, relations of the colony and its mother country had become intensely severe. When George ascended the throne in 1760 and became the king of England, both sides of Atlantic never thought the the American colony were separated from the British Empire. Seven years of war have left British a high debt and the government is badly in need for tremendous overseas territory to maintain the costs in domestic empire. After that, the British government progressed to impose heavy tax and trade limitations on the American colony, which igniting people’s rage and violent protests.

With the military situation becoming more and more serious, the Second Continental Congress was anxious for appointing an outstanding commander for the Continental Army. Admittedly, he was by no means a military genesis, who cannot be matched with Alexander or Caesar. Besides, in some major battles, he even defeated. For instance, the Battles of Fort Necessity, Monongahela, Long Island, White Plains, Fort Washington, Brandywine, and Germantown were all battles that Washington either directly led or played an important role in…and in each of these battles Washington’s forces were defeated.

It should be pointed out that Washington’s military tactics are not groundbreaking—-neither creative nor remarkable, yet supporters believe that thanks to his leading philosophy that encouraged American to fight for independence. What’s more, Washington has always avoided direct conflict with the British, which prevented decisive defeat or surrender. He was quite familiar with the weakness of U.S. military, which has prevented them from too risky actions. At last, he also employed his bold personality to encourage troop, enabling them to survive from long and tough war and finally won the independent war. In a word, his undoubted ability of uniting soldiers under fire, his excellent ability of maintaining the army’s morale, and of course, his grasp of the macroscopic development all contributed to his final great success in the history.

The chairman of the Constitutional Convention

Although Washington’s thought had little effect on the Constitution of the United States, his supporters and his fame played a major role in the ratification of the Constitution of the States. At that time there was a powerful force in the opposition to the new constitution, without the support of Washington, the new constitution can not be adopted. For example, he pointed out to establish a strong federal government with the consideration that the Continental Congress fail to unite the states to provide for the military needs. However, the general populace did not uphold Washington’s views of a strong federal government.

As the book Give me Liberty recorded, the first written constitution of the United States federal regulations, drafted by the Continental Congress in 1777 and approved by the state four years later. The independence war needs to establish a national coordination system, but people are afraid of a centralized political power, which will constitute a threat to freedom. The regulation, therefore, seeks to strike a balance between the two. It made it clear that the new national government would be a "permanent union". However it does not look like a grand blueprint of the government, more like a mutual defense assistance treaty, which by its language --- it is a firm friendship alliance between States. Under the treaty, the 13 states have retained their sovereignty, freedom and independence. The national government is consisted of a parliament. In parliament, each state regardless of size, owns a collective vote. There is no president of the national government that requires to implement the law, neither judicial department to explain the law. A major decision requires 9 states, not a simple majority.

The first president of the United states.

It is fortunate that the United States has George Washington who have both ability and political integrity been elected as the first president. Unveil history of any South American and African countries, one can find out that it is too easy for a newly-established nation even a democratic constitution degenerate into military dictatorship.

However, George Washington was different. He was unanimously elected as president of the United States for twice. During two terms, he established the nation’s authorized currency, created the State Department, and established the Supreme Court. It is without doubt that Washington is a strong leader, who has maintained the unity of the country, yet he does not possess the ambition of holding the regime permanently. He did not have any attempt of being a king, not did he plan to be a dictator. He created a precedent of conceding the right after two terms of presidency, a rule that the United States still pursues.The president, aware of the danger that any of his measures would set a precedent, therefore making sure that his actions were suitable. His title—-president was just a manifestation that he carefully choose and decided not to emulate European royal courts. This perspective is extremely astonishing for me, personally speaking. Compared with Chinese leaders in the history, many of the first founder have more or less thoughts of possessing their leadership to the death or even hand down to their own offspring, however, George Washington is different and really set the tone for the following generations.

Compared with other American leaders at the time such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton , George Washington seems to lack of innovative spirit and profound thought in many aspects. But he is obvious more important than other great people mentioned above, both in war and peace time. His administrative leadership plays a crucial role. To put differently, without him, any of the political movements will not achieve their goals in the end. For the formation of the United States, Madison's contribution is significant, while the contribution of Washington can almost be said to be indispensable.

Because he played the most important role in the war of independence and the founding, Washington is often called the father of the United states. Scholars have tied him with Abraham Lincoln as the greatest president in the history of the United States. In a voting activity in America online in 2005—-“ the greatest American ", Washington was ranked as fourth America's greatest figures.

Conclusion

In Washington’s farewell address, he gives advice on the necessity and significance of a national union, the value of the Constitution and the rule of law. He referred to morality as "a necessary spring of popular government”. A through retrospect of his profound achievements in American history, it is without doubt that he deserves the respect of “Father of His Country”, especially when taking the social, economic and political context into consideration.